Peace Technology

I always find it interesting when research is published in peer-reviewed science journals that is paradigm-busting.

“The hypothesis definitely raised some eyebrows among our reviewers. But the statistical work is sound. The numbers are there. When you can statistically control for as many variables as these studies do, it makes the results much more convincing. This evidence indicates that we now have a new technology to generate peace in the world.”
— Raymond Russ, editor of the Journal of Mind and Behaviour.

It’s notable that there has been 50 studies of this effect, studied for almost 30 years.

“The observed changes in the Middle East included reductions in war deaths of 75%, war intensity of 45%, in crime of 12%, in fires of 30%, plus there were improvements in national mood of 27% and the stock market of 7% during the experimental period.”

Notably, the effect was 2 to 5 times stronger than conventional factors. Those “conventional factors” are political and military actions.

In Aug. 1993 in Washington, D.C., they reduced violent crime by 23% in a study evaluated by board of 27 independent scientists. They predicted doing this in advance as they’d already done it repeatedly.

The source of the effect? Large groups of meditators, meditating together. No intention to change anything. Just practicing together. And they can do it for less than 0.2% of the cost of the military. Does it hit the news? No, it’s still considered a curiosity published mostly in journals of “Exploration”.

The graph shows that when the numbers go up, the effect increases. The effect becomes more marked above the key threshold and drops markedly below it.

The group has been working to create a country-sized group in the US since 2006, partly by importing Indian pundits. They are also working to create a global-sized group in India. The major stumbling block has simply been one of funding.

I’m also aware of at least 2 other groups working on a similar plan. The next couple of years promise to be quite remarkable.
Davidya